GOLD

A client whose face is covered with gold is seen at the Viet My beauty salon in Hanoi on February 13, 2012. Viet My is one of a small number of salons in Vietnam that provides 24k gold leaf face mask therapy, said to help make skin whiter. A single facial costs 1.8 million Vietnam dong
The pursuit of gold medals has athletes and fans focused on the Olympic games in London, but the pursuit of gold is a worldwide obsession that extends far beyond the realm of sport. Investors and speculators drove the price of gold to dizzying heights a year ago as they sought refuge from volatile markets. Seeking gain in an uncertain recession, millions of people trade old jewelry as cash-for-gold businesses flourish. Throughout the ups and downs, gold extraction continues far from the glory of sports and the frenzy of markets. Gold is dredged, mined, and panned in operations large and small, often at great risk to miners. Processing gold with cyanide and other chemicals involves dangerous environmental hazards. What results is undeniably beautiful. Gathered here are images of people extracting, processing, refining, buying, selling, celebrating… all of them going for gold.

A small-scale miner holds his gold that was melted together at a processing plant north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012. Mongolia is home to some of the world's biggest unexploited mineral deposits, and has become one of the hottest destinations for billions of dollars of mining investment.

The gold and copper mine of US giant Newmont in Indonesia's Sumbawa island dominates the landscape in a file photograph from April 4, 2007.

Polluted water flows from an abandoned gold mine in Rosia Montana, Romania on September 20, 2011. A Canadian company wants to build a controversial open pit mine that would use large amounts of cyanide.

A girl pans for gold in the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar's Kachin State on February 24, 2012, earning from $3-12 a day. A day's work yields an amount of gold roughly the size of a grain or two of rice.

Residents inside a funeral parlor in Pantukan, Philippines look at the body of a girl killed in a landslide in a remote small community of gold prospectors on January 5, 2012. At least 25 people were killed and about 100 others were missing.

Miners Jacinto Pariona (right) and Edwin Sarmiento eat at a public hospital after being rescued from the Cabeza de Negro gold-and-copper mine in Ica, Peru on April 11, 2012. Nine miners were trapped inside for six days.

The cloudy spots on an undated chest X-ray shows the effects of silicosis on a gold miner. In 2011, South Africa said gold miners with silicosis could sue for compensation, and thousands plan to do just that

Papuan villagers gather in a river to pan for gold after sludge containing gold leaked from a pipeline of US mining giant Freeport-McMoran in Kwamki Lama, Indonesia. Striking Freeport workers said the leak was due to corrosion and were demanding at least an eight-fold increase in the current minimum wage of $1.50 an hour.

A man repairs a damaged water pump at a gold mine in Madre de Dios, Peru on August 25, 2011. Perhaps nowhere else in the Amazon is the battle between mining's economic possibility and environmental impact more apparent than in the state of Madre de Dios, where thousands of people depend on the industry to survive and a majority of miners operate illegally.

Artisanal gold miners pass up pans of sediment from an open-cast mine near the town of Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of Congo on April 28, 2012. It is one of many areas of the country to have experienced bitter ethnic conflict between rival tribes in recent years. Massacres have left tens of thousands dead.

An informal gold digger looks for gold in the sand of a creek in the mountains of San Juan Arriba, Honduras on February 7, 2012

Mechanics work on a mining truck at the Newmont Mining Corp. gold quarry mine in the Carlin Trend west of Elko, Nevada on January 25, 2012.

Miners push a trolley loaded with ore materials for processing at a mining site in the village of Mt. Diwata in Mindanao, Philippines on July 17, 2012.

Gold bars are displayed at a jewelery shop in Chandigarh, India on May 8, 2012. India is the world's biggest buyer of bullion.

Gold is poured at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank Mine near Baker Lake, Nunavut, Canada on August 24, 2011.

An employee of KCM pours molten gold while reprocessing it near Plovdiv, Bulgaria on October 20, 2011.

A worker walks through the Pueblo Viejo mine in Sanchez Ramirez province in the Dominican Republic on March 20, 2012. One of the world’s largest gold mining operations, run by a joint venture of Canadian companies Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, is about to open in the Dominican Republic, where the industry has a toxic legacy of pollution that stained rivers a searing red and failed to lift the fortunes of this largely poor country.

Indonesian police clash with striking workers of US gold and copper mining company Freeport McMoran in Timika, Indonesia on October 10, 2011 where police shot and killed one protester and wounded another after the striking workers pelted them with stones, injuring seven policemen.

An Oscar statuette is dipped in an electrically charged tub as it is plated with gold at the R.S. Owens factory in Chicago on December 6, 2011.

A shop assistant sells gold bars at a gold shop in Beijing on October 26, 2011.

Security guard Gus Rodriguez stands outside "El Palacio de Oro" jewelry store in downtown Los Angeles on August 25, 2011.

Andean people protest against Newmont's proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine near the Cortada lagoon in Cajamarca, Peru on November 24, 2011. Protesters and farmers say the mine would cause pollution and hurt water supplies by replacing a string of alpine lakes with artificial reservoirs.

Goldsmiths craft ornaments at a workshop in Kolkata on March 26, 2012.

South Korea's Oh Jin Hyek bites his gold medal during the victory ceremony for the men's individual archery event at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Lord's Cricket Ground on August 3, 2012

Jewelry and silver and gold coins dating back to the Roman period that were recently discovered at an excavation site near kiryat Gat, in Jerusalem are displayed on June 4, 2012

Old jewelry made from gold is melted down at Zorka, a jewelry factory in Minsk on April 26, 2012

EXTRAORDINARY MICROSCOPE PHOTOGRAPHS

SEVENTH PLACE - Specimen: Drosophila ovaries and uterus. Technique: Fluorescence.
The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition winners are currently on display at the New York Hall of Science. This competition, in its ninth year, is a dynamic international photo competition which honors the world's most extraordinary microscope images and videos of biological subjects. The Olympus BioScapes exhibit will be on display through August 31st. You can see the winners and many honorable mentions on the Olympus Bioscapes web site.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: NIH-3T3 connective tissue cells co-transduced with 5 fluorescent proteins. Technique: Confocal microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Juvenile live bay scallop Argopecten irradians. The ultimate goal of this research is to help restore scallop populations in Rhode Island. Technique: Stereomicroscopy, 1x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION -Sporangium of the slime mold Craterium minutum. Technique: Fluorescence.

HONORABLE MENTION -Adult mouse hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory. Reactive astroglia (pale yellow) have proliferated and enlarged in response to neuronal activity over time. Technique: Confocal microscopy, Z-stack of 7 slices.

HONORABLE MENTION -Forewing (elytron) of the green tiger beetle. (Cicindela campestris) Technique: Reflected light microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Neuronal culture. Technique: Fluorescence, 6 images stitched at 40x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Damselfly eye. The image reveals the regular, crystal-like hexagonal lattice of the eye’s elements. Technique: Projection of confocal stack, 20x objective.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: NIH-3T3 connective tissue cells co-transduced with 5 fluorescent proteins. Technique: Confocal microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Rat cerebral cortex with astrocytes’ (yellow) endfeet wrapping around blood vessels (red). Cell nuclei are cyan. Technique: Confocal microscopy, spectral imaging with 50 Z-slices.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view. Technique: Confocal, autofluorescence, 20x.

NINTH PLACE - Specimen: Living diatom Mediopyxis helysia, showing the cell nuclei and golden chloroplasts. Technique: Brightfield.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Cross section of a cat tooth showing membrane surrounding the outside of tooth. Technique: Darkfield illumination, 25x magnification. Image composed of 38 images.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Neuronal culture. Technique: Fluorescence, 6 images stitched at 40x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Serum arrested Mouse L-1210 cells engaged in spontaneous apoptosis (programmed cell death) after nutrient depletion and acid hydrolysis. Technique: Phase contrast microscopy, 400x, image scanned and enlarged.

TENTH PLACE - Specimen: Spherical colonies of Nostoc commune, a bluegreen alga.Technique: Darkfield illumination.

FIRST PLACE - Specimen: Rotifer Floscularia ringens feeding. Its rapidly beating cilia (hair-like structures) bring water-containing food to the rotifer. Technique: Differential interference contrast microscopy.

SIXTH PLACE - Specimen: Stinkbug eggs. Technique: Brightfield illumination.

FIFTH PLACE - Specimen: Live coral Goniastrea sp., known as green brain coral. One full polyp in the center is shown with four surrounding polyps. Walled corallites are purple. Technique: Phase contrast illumination.

TRANSIT OF PLANET VENUS

 A plane flies under a thin layer cloud crossing the sun as Venus moves past the sun are seen through a coelostat at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on June 5.

 For all, it was surely a once-in-a-lifetime chance to view the planet Venus as it made its transit past the sun these past two days within view of millions of people on Earth. The last Venus transit was in 2004, and the next pair of events will not happen again until the years 2117 and 2125.


 In this composite image provided by NASA, the SDO satellite captures the path sequence of the transit of Venus across the face of the sun at on June 5-6 as seen from space. The last transit was in 2004 and the next pair of events will not happen again until the year 2117 and 2125.

 
Professor Hashim Ahmed Yousif al-Sayed, dean of the College of Science at the University of Bahrain, points out the planet Venus passing the sun as seen through a telescope projected on paper to a small group of spectators gathered, not pictured, at the campus of a university in Sakhir, Bahrain on June 6. People around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare sight of the transit of Venus.


 Venus begins to cross the sun's face during the transit of Venus on June 5 as seen from the west side of Manhattan in New York. Astronomers around the world are training their telescopes on the skies to watch Venus pass in front of the sun, a once-in-a-lifetime event that will not be seen for another 105 years.


 Venus moves across the sun during the transit in Sydney, Australia on June 6. People around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare sight of the transit of Venus.


Planet Venus, pictured as a black dot, is seen in transit across the Sun at sunrise in Kathmandu on June 6. Sky-gazers around the world held up their telescopes and viewing glasses to watch a once-in-a-lifetime event as Venus slid across the sun.

 Indians watch the projection of the transit of Venus against the Sun in New Delhi, India on June 6. People around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare sight of the transit of Venus.


 The planet Venus is seen in transit across the Sun during sunrise in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 6.


 An image provided by NASA, the SDO satellite captures a ultra-high definition image of the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun at on June 5 from space. The last transit was in 2004 and the next pair of events will not happen again until the year 2117 and 2125.


 Venus is silhouetted as it crosses in front of the sun as it sets behind the Kansas City, Mo. skyline on June 5. From the U.S. to South Korea, people around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the once-in-a-lifetime sight of the transit of Venus, which won't be seen for another 105 years.



 An image provided by NASA, the SDO satellite captures a ultra-high definition image of the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun on June 6 from space. The last transit was in 2004 and the next pair of events will not happen again until the year 2117 and 2125.



 A bird sits atop one of the domes of the landmark Taj Mahal as Venus begins to pass in front of the sun, as visible from Agra, India on June 6. People around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare sight of the transit of Venus.